bait footwear

Me, having problems with color? Yep. When you like every color, narrowing a palette down to maintain a consistent blog/Instagram look becomes really hard and sometimes almost anxiety inducing (ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little). Case in point: the outfit featured in today’s post. I don’t normally gravitate toward dark blues and grays, but sometimes I need some neutrals/dark colors to break up the usual pastels. This sweater is from Sugarhill Boutique. I love their sweaters and knitwear. Their prints are so cute and the sweaters are really quite comfortable. I find that they pair with jeans just as well as they do with skirts.

Even though this particular outfit is a departure from my usual pastel and bright color palette, it felt fitting on that weekend. The temperature was in the high 60s/low 70s and it actually felt like autumn in Los Angeles. (Of course, the next week it went right back up into the 90s. Ugh). The navy sweater has stripes but look a little closer and you can see a few little birds and hearts standing about on the stripes.

I spend a decent amount of time researching locations to do outfit photos. Sometimes I’ll go on Yelp, or even just do random Googling depending on what kind of environment or background I have in mind for a particular outfit. Murals and outdoor art are obvious choices, but in a city as big as LA with a lot of people taking photos at similar locations, I try to find the less known places. Of course, a nice mural or pretty location never stays secret for long.

This particular location I came upon by chance; I was walking around near my workplace and saw signs for Bold Pas, an upcoming temporary art takeover of public places in Old Town Pasadena. They had mockups of the art installations so I was able to plan my outfit around them. It looked like it had the potential for some interesting photos, so we went! (more…)

A little while ago, Unique VIntage sent me a dress from their in-house brand to review on the blog. I have always loved Unique Vintage’s vintage-inspired style of clothing and their boutique in Burbank (a city right outside of Los Angeles) is adorable and a shop I always enjoy visiting! For my wedding, my bridesmaids wore Unique Vintage dresses. They lived in different parts of the country but UV made it so easy to order the dresses. Another thing I like is how inclusive they are in their sizing; many items are available in plus sizes, which is great since my bridesmaids were all different body types.

Photo by Nolwen Cifuentes.
This was three years ago already! This is the bridesmaid dress on their website.

The dress I received is the Unique Vintage Chateau Swing Dress, in a pale mint color with a carnival/fair-themed print. The pictures on the website don’t do it justice because the print is so adorable in person. The print has llamas, popcorn, ice cream and cotton candy, all things you can find at a fair! Plus, mint green is pretty much my favorite color (well, unless you count rainbow as a single color).

I wore this dress to the Ventura County Fair. The Ventura fair is smaller than its Orange County and LA County counterparts, but I like the smaller size. It feels less chaotic and it’s on the beach, meaning the temperature is way cooler than at the OC and LA County Fairs which are more inland. (Trust me…it’s not fun going to the fair and eating hot fried junk food when it’s 90-plus degrees out.) I had a lot of fun walking around the fair, eating junk food and people-watching. Ross and I ate way too much food but that’s kind of the point of a fair, isn’t it? We shared a deep fried grilled cheese with fries and onion rings on the side (with an extra order of gooey, melted cheese) and survived! We also stuffed ourselves with cotton candy and soft serve (with sprinkles, of course).

Dressing “seasonally” used to be tough for me because the colors that are normally associated with autumn and winter never looked right on me. I’ve always admired dark and jewel toned colors on other people but not on myself. Sure, I have black dresses (that I never wear) and some red colored clothing for Christmas, but I have never liked wearing all black or dark colors.

My personal palette is pretty much all rainbows or pastels all the time. At this point, why fight it? I’ll wear what I like and what feels good on me, even if it’s not season-appropriate. Case in point- today’s featured outfit. It’s the middle of winter and I’m wearing lavender and yellow! It’s a little easier to wear bright colors all the time in a place like Los Angeles, where there is abundant sunshine most of the year here.

I’m a sucker for interesting collars. I love the scalloped edging along the seashells on this modified Peter Pan collar. It also echoes the scalloped detail on the skirt. Note: I love scalloped edges. They add a cute, girly detail.

The blouse and skirt are both from Miss Patina. I’ll have a more detailed haul post up soon because I got a bunch of stuff from their after Christmas sale that I can’t wait to wear.

You can probably tell but I adore colors, especially pastel shades. I looked through my closet recently and counted 3 pink skirts and 5 pairs of pink shoes. I wasn’t a big fan of pink growing up (I preferred blue) but somehow as an adult I ended up with a bunch of pink clothing and accessories.

I don’t usually wear black unless it’s an accessory like tights or leggings. But sometimes I do like the neutrality of black in my outfits because I can’t be a pastel rainbow all the time. This particular outfit consists of a black sweater and one of my favorite skirts from ModCloth. I love the pale pink color and it instantly makes an outfit feel more like something you would wear for a special occasion, even if I’m wearing just a plain t-shirt with it. The sweater is from the label Dear Creatures, and I got it at a sample sale this past summer, which you can read about here.